BenefitsLink |
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| October 4, 2007 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
Today's sponsor is World Congress
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| The 3rd Annual Consumer-Centric Healthcare Congress |
| Thursday, November 8-9, 2007 | Sheraton Crystal City Hotel | Arlington, VA
The 3rd Annual Consumer-Centric Healthcare Congress addresses the convergence of healthcare, financial services and technology, and the rise in healthcare consumerism fueled by the internet and direct-to-consumer marketing from the perspectives of all the stakeholders. Click above for more information or to register. |
(a) New Guidance Documents
(None today.)
(b) News
UAW-GM Contract Would Divert Cost-of-Living Increases To Fund VEBA
Excerpt: "A 'little-observed detail' in the tentative contract agreement between United Auto Workers and General Motors that would create a voluntary employees' beneficiary association is that 'workers will be diverting a substantial amount' of their cost-of-living adjustments 'to pay for the rising cost of health care, for both active workers and retirees,' the Detroit Free Press reports . . . ." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Deere Making Insurance Changes: Options Affect Fewer Than 5,000 of the Company's 28,000 Retirees
Excerpt: "Upcoming changes for Deere & Company's salaried retirees will usher in some 21st century health-insurance concepts. Deere will provide 'retiree medical credits' to Medicare-eligible retirees who may purchase a Medicare Advantage plan and a prescription drug plan through private insurers." (Telegraph Herald)
Massachusetts Mental Health Parity Bill Mandates Covering Any Disorder Listed by American Psychiatric Association
Excerpt: "Mental health parity would become a reality, and not just the name of a political compromise, if the state Legislature passes a bill that got a hearing yesterday before the joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Six years ago, legislators passed a mental health parity law amid general congratulation that discrimination in coverage would end because insurers who offered mental health coverage were required to make it equal to the insurance they offered for other illnesses." (Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Inc.)
(c) Summaries of Guidance; Filed Comments
Regulation of 'Employee Leasing Companies' under Fair Share Contribution Requirement of the Mass. Health Care Reform Act
Excerpt: "While the DHCFP and the DUA and other state agencies have done yeoman's work issuing the guidance and establishing the administrative systems and IT infrastructure necessary to implement all of the (2006 Massachusetts Health Care Reform) Act's requirements, certain challenges remain. These challenges include the application of the FSC rules to traditional staffing firms, Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) and other three-party employment arrangements." (Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.)
An Unhealthy America: The Economic Impact of Chronic Disease
Excerpt: "In its groundbreaking study, 'An Unhealthy America: The Economic Impact of Chronic Disease,' the Milken Institute details the enormous financial impact of chronic disease on the U.S. economy -- not only in treatment costs, but lost worker productivity -- today and in the decades ahead. It also describes the huge savings if a serious effort were made to improve Americans' health." (Milken Institute)
Short-Term Disability Benefit Not Subject to ERISA Even Though Labeled as ERISA Plan in SPD
Excerpt: "The issue in this case was whether or not a short-term disability (STD) plan was subject to ERISA. The trial court had found that the plan was an ERISA-exempt payroll practice, even though the SPD included statements from which an employee 'might conclude' that the plan was subject to ERISA." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Overview: New York Joins Other States in Passing Workplace Accommodation Law for Nursing Mothers
Excerpt: "New York recently enacted a statute requiring employers to allow women break time, and make reasonable efforts to provide them a private location, so they can express breast milk for their nursing children while at work. This statute follows similar legislation passed in at least 13 other states within the past decade. Like many such laws, some key provisions of the New York statute are ambiguous and open to varying interpretations." (Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP)
(d) Trends, Surveys, Research
Survey Invitation: University of Michigan Immunization Study for Employers
Researchers at the University of Michigan invite you to participate in a brief study on Insurance Coverage for Immunizations. They say it should take approximately 5-7 minutes to complete the confidential questionnaire. Study results will be available to participants. (University of Michigan)
Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured: Analysis of the March 2007 Current Population Survey
Excerpt: "This Issue Brief provides historic data through 2006 on the number and percentage of nonelderly individuals with and without health insurance. Based on EBRI estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS), it reflects 2006 data. It also discusses trends in coverage for the 1994-2006 period and highlights characteristics that typically indicate whether an individual is insured." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Discussion Document: Healthcare Consumerism - Trends in Consumer Cost-Sharing (PDF)
13 pages. (Booz Allen Hamilton)
Health Care Cost and Access Challenges Persist: Initial Findings from HSC's 2007 Site Visits
Excerpt: "Little has changed in local health care markets since 2005 to break the cycle of rising costs, falling insurance coverage and widening access inequities, according to initial findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2007 site visits to 12 nationally representative metropolitan communities." (Center for Studying Health System Change)
Chart: Flexible Work and Part-Time Jobs
Excerpt: "As defined by BLS, working part time is working between 1 and 34 hours per week. BLS data show that in 2006, most people who usually worked part time did so for personal reasons, such as childcare, school, or retirement from a full-time job. Schedules of these part-timers varied, but they worked about 21 hours per week on average." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Specialty Drug Programs Rx: Special Solutions for Employers (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "This InsightOut™ looks at specialty drugs from four perspectives. First, it defines these drugs in pharmacological and economic terms. Second, it describes the typical plans and practices through which many employers provide coverage of specialty drugs. Third, it examines why specialty drugs present employers with administrative and financial challenges quite different from traditional prescription drug medications. Finally, it poses the questions employers should ask themselves . . . ." (Buck Consultants)
Workers Should Review Benefit Plans
Excerpt: "As the 'open enrollment' season begins at most companies, workers need to re-evaluate their health insurance plans and other benefit offerings to determine which best satisfy their needs. But studies indicate that many people allot a half-hour or less to the task, and then simply renew last year's selections without weighing the changes in their benefits or in their lives . . . ." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Reliable Data Indispensable to Manage Costs of Chronic Illness and Identify Unhealthy Employees
Excerpt: "Cost-conscious employers are gathering detailed data so they can get an accurate picture of their workers' health and develop a highly individualized disease management program. But determining a precise ROI for such an approach still proves elusive." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
IFEBP Survey Finds Only a Few Have Dropped Retiree Health Benefits
Excerpt: "The effects plans of rising health care costs on employer-sponsored retiree health care has been raised as a concerned, but only 4% of respondents to a survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) previously offered retiree health care benefits but do not now." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Audio of October 2nd Panel on the Next Steps in Providing Benefits to Low-Wage Workers
Excerpt: "Panelists discussed what is missing from the debate about improving the income, benefits, and related work supports for low-wage workers, especially those with children." (Urban Institute)
FAQs: Revised Form LM-30 - Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report
Excerpt: "Note: The information in these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) applies to the revised Form LM-30 which must be filed by a labor organization officer or employee for reports covering any of his or her fiscal years that began on or after August 16, 2007. The current Form LM-30 may be filed for reports covering any fiscal year beginning before that date." (U.S. Department of Labor)
(e) Policy, Opinion, Advocacy
Comments on Disease Management and the Pharma.ceutical Industry
Excerpt: "Investing in early intervention in chronic disease equates with selling more drugs for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, early diabetes, appetite suppression in obesity, slowing the progression of arthritis, etc., etc. Just imagine the potential market for the pharma.ceutical firms." (Physicians for a National Health Program)
Lawmakers Brief State Regulators on Health Pilot Proposal
Excerpt: "Members of Congress came to the fall meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to stump for a bill that could turn states into health insurance reform laboratories." (The National Underwriter Company; free registration or paid subscription required)
Newly Posted Events
New Proposed Cafeteria Plan Regulations with Craig J. Davidson, CEBS - Webinar
Nationwide on October 16, 2007
presented by Davidson Marketing Group -- FutureOffice Network
Preapproved Cross-Tested Plans: The Next Generation
Nationwide on October 16, 2007
presented by SunGard Relius
Newly Posted Press Releases
PBGC Assumes Brooklyn Hospital Center Pension Plan
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
U.S. Labor Department Testifies Before House Education and Labor Committee on 401(k) Fee Disclosure
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Unnecessary Burdens on 401(k) Retirement Plans Will Slow Growth, Reduce Participants' Benefits
American Benefits Council
ERIC, PSCA, and Other Groups Support Enhanced Fee Disclosure, But Opposed to Chairman Miller's Approach
ERISA Industry Committee
Survey: Most Crave Financial Advice Over Personal Trainer, Fashion Consultant
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)
RetireeWorkforce / Vizu Corporation Research Finds 75% Of Labor Force Plans To Work After Retirement
RetireeWorkforce.com
Triveris Introduces Personal Health Record with Built-in Health Advisor
Triveris
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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ERISA Attorney
for O'Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong S.C.
in WI
Account Manager
for JR Katz
in IL
Retirement Plan Administrator / Consultant
for Applied Plan Administrator LLC
in MI
Daily Valuation/Recordkeeping Manager
for Pension Specialists, Inc.
in CA
Enroller - Employee Benefits Meeting Presenter
for Total Benefit Communications
in ANY STATE
Retirement Plan Administrator
for PENSYS, INC.
in CO
Administrative Assistant, LA Pension Office
for Transamerica
in CA
Field Service and Underwriting Manager
for Standard Insurance Company
in CT
Statutory Disability Benefits Processor
for Standard Insurance Company
in NY
Stable Library, Disability Benefits Processor
for Standard Insurance Company
in NY
Pension Analyst
for Metro Benefits, Inc.
in PA
Defined Contribution Analyst I or II
for Standard Insurance Company
in ME
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
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